


Dreaming of a Happy Ending

by DianaSolaris



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Minor Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Minor Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam, Minor Terezi Pyrope/Dave Strider, Minor Terezi Pyrope/Karkat Vantas, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-02 06:31:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11503722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DianaSolaris/pseuds/DianaSolaris
Summary: Karkat finds the ghost he's been looking for while their meteor surges through the Furthest Ring, and sees an ending that could have been.





	Dreaming of a Happy Ending

He knew at some point, somewhere in the vast reaches of the infinite dream bubbles and the black void, she would be there. But it didn’t make it any easier for him when it finally happened.

 

“H-hello?”

 

Kanaya heard the voice, and paused. “I - We should go do a thing.”

 

“What? But I like the dream bubbles -”

 

Kanaya grabbed Rose’s arm and yanked her out of the room. The door closed behind them, and then it was just Karkat and Nepeta’s ghost, hovering in a dream.

 

\---

 

aC: :33< *crawls into your lap and wonders if everything is ok*   
CG: OF COURSE EVERYTHINGS OKAY. WHY WOULDNT IT BE.

aC: :33< well youve been quiet! I worry about you karkat >:c

CG: WELL YOU SHOULDNT. DONT YOU HAVE OTHER PEOPLE TO WORRY ABOUT? LIKE THAT SACK OF MONKEY BALLS YOU CALL YOUR BEST FRIEND?   
aC: >:O <i can worry about more than one person at once!

aC: :( <also hes not a sack of monkey balls thats rude!!   
CG: FINE I WONT CALL HIM THAT.    
aC: :33< besides i know you get grrumpy when people care about you!! Its okay i’m not taking it purrsonally   
CG: I   
CG: DONT KNOW HOW TO RESPOND TO THAT   
CG: OTHER THAN A WORLD SHATTERING SIGH OF FRUSTRATION   
aC: :33< heehee!    
CG: *grumbles but pets your head anyway*   
aC: :O :O :O :O< *purrs a lot*

 

\---

 

It took Nepeta a few moments to focus in on him, but once her blank eyes met his, her face lit up, grin stretching from ear to ear. “Karkat!!”

 

“N-Nepeta…”

 

A moment later she flung herself at him, and even though she was insubstantial in his arms, Karkat closed his arms around her anyway. There was a lump in his throat that he couldn’t make go away. “Oh my gosh I didn’t know I was going to see more of you! You’re all the way out here!”

 

“M-more of me?”

 

“Well, you’re a different Karkat, right? You don’t have your silly pyjamas on.”

 

He sat down. He’d known it wasn’t  _ his  _ Nepeta (and it sounded so possessive, so  _ wrong  _ to even word it that way) - but it was another thing to hear it. “...What’s your timeline like? Or was, I suppose? Since -” He couldn’t acknowledge her being dead out loud. Even if it was a different Nep.

 

“It was pretty good! We died but Aradia and Sollux finished the game and you and I have a dream bubble all to ourselves!”

 

Karkat grinned, rubbing at his eyes. “I - uh - you mentioned pyjamas?”

 

“Yeah! Omigod have you not reached god tier yet?”

 

For a moment, he can’t see anything except Bec Noir hovering over Prospit - “No, not yet.”

 

“You get a really cool cape!” She pressed her hands to her face, unable to stop grinning. “And you look so  _ cool  _ in red, and - and -” She sat down next to Karkat, resting her head on his shoulder. “I believe in you,” she whispered.

 

He could have told her that god tier was impossible for him. He could have told her his fears that he was in a doomed timeline, or that this timeline just didn’t need him, or that  _ he’d  _ been the one to guarantee that everybody would die. (And that last part wasn’t so much a fear as it was true, wasn’t it?  _ He  _ was responsible for Jack Noir.)

 

Instead, he took one of her hands in his. “Thank you,” he murmured, and even though she was dead and beyond his reach, Karkat could imagine she felt warm anyway.

 

\---

 

gC: YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD PROB4BLY T3LL H3R RIGHT   
gC: H4SN’T TH1S GONE ON LONG 3NOUGH?   
CG: WHY ARE YOU ASSUMING NEPETA AND I HAVENT   
CG: YKNOW   
CG: TALKED ABOUT IT   
gC: B3C4USE UR A DUMB4SS >:P   
CG: FIRST OF ALL I AM A DUMBASS BUT NOT CONCERNING ROMANCE AND FLUSHED THINGS ESPECIALLY. I KNOW WHAT IM ABOUT, TEREZI   
CG: I HAVE DONE MY RESEARCH   
CG: AND IM NOT ENOUGH OF AN IDIOT TO BE *CRUEL* TO HER WHEN I DONT HAVE TO BE   
gC: OK4Y BUT   
gC: WH4T 1S UR V3RS1ON OF CRUEL   
gC: BC 1M PR3TTY SUR3 SH3 ST1LL TH1NKS SH3 H4S 4 CH4NCE W1TH YOU   
CG: I DONT WANT TO TELL HER SHE DOESNT BECAUSE I DONT THINK THATS TRUE   
CG: I DONT FEEL THAT WAY RIGHT NOW   
CG: BUT I FEEL LIKE   
CG: ITS NOT RIGHT TO GO OUT OF MY WAY TO MAKE HER FEEL BAD ABOUT IT   
CG: ESPECIALLY WHEN SHES NOT MAKING ME FEEL WEIRD ABOUT IT   
gC: DO YOU L1K3 F33LING ADM1R3D H4H4 >:]   
CG: YES I DO. FUCKING SUE ME. IM NOT A BAD PERSON FOR THAT

 

\---

 

“So what’s your timeline like?” She was practically on top of him, and Karkat supposed part of him should have minded, but this was Nepeta, wasn’t it? And - he didn’t know. All of the things he was supposed to know about people - all the things he’d studied trying to understand, thinking maybe if he analyzed people enough they’d make sense - got lost under the wave of regrets.

 

“Oh, it’s…” He shrugged. “Could be better.”  _ You’re dead. Equius is dead. Two of my best friends went crazy. Apparently I’m a great influence.  _ “...You know that guy I had a black crush on?”

 

Nepeta nodded, although Karkat was pretty certain she had no idea who he was talking about.

 

“He’s not all that interesting apparently. Also he had this weird red thing with Vriska? But his -” Karkat suddenly found himself blushing. “His, uh. His friend Dave -”

 

“Oooooh~?” She was making a face at him. Karkat avoided looking at her, otherwise he would die of embarrassment.

 

“He’s here with us. And turns out - I - I don’t know.” Karkat scratched his head. “Can you be red for more than one person at once?”

 

“Of course you can! It makes my shipping walls  _ really  _ difficult to keep track of though.”

 

“...You can?”

 

“Yeah! I mean, auspisticisms are all about dealing with being black for more than one person, nya?”

 

“I...I  _ suppose…  _ I wish I’d known that was an option before now.”

 

Nepeta shrugged. “The drones don’t like it when you do things like that. But we’re special!”

 

Karkat was seized with the sudden urge to cry. “Yeah. Yeah.”

 

\---

 

CG: HEY SO   
CG: BEING ON THIS METEOR HAS REALLY SUCKED LATELY    
CG: WHAT WITH EVERYBODY YELLING AT EACH OTHER   
CG: AND UM   
CG: OH GOD I CANT DO IT I CANT PRETEND EVERYTHING IS NORMAL YOU GOTTA KEEP THE FUCK AWAY FROM GAMZEE.   
CG: I DONT LIKE YOUR FUCKBRAIN MOIRAIL BUT HE BETTER COME THROUGH AND KEEP YOU SAFE.   
CG: BECAUSE I CANT   
CG: I CAN BARELY KEEP SOLLUX ALIVE AND I WAS SUPPOSED TO KEEP GAMZEE CALM AND THIS IS MY FAULT I’M SO SORRY   
CG: NEPETA?   
CG: CMON PLEASE SAY SOMETHING IT IS *VERY* UNLIKE YOU TO KEEP ME ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT LIKE THATS KIND OF A DICK MOVE   
CG: ITS MAKING ME VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY WORRIED

CG: I MEAN OVERALL IT WOULD JUST BE NICE TO NOT HAVE ANY MORE DEAD FRIENDS BUT ALSO   
CG: I FEEL LIKE IVE BEEN REALLY SHITTY AND AMBIGUOUS   
CG: AND OK NO I AM NOT FLUSHED FOR YOU RIGHT NOW BUT I KEEP FEELING LIKE I COULD BE BECAUSE ITS SO HARD TO GET ANGRY WITH YOU OR TO STAY ANNOYED WITH YOU AND JUST   
CG: GENERALLY I MISS YOU SO MUCH WHEN IM NOT TALKING TO YOU AND WHENEVER YOURE NOT AROUND IM WONDERING WHAT YOURE UP TO   
CG: AND I DONT KNOW WHAT THAT TRANSLATES TO AND IT BOTHERS ME THAT I DONT KNOW BECAUSE IM SUPPOSED TO UNDERSTAND THIS CRAP   
CG: I MEAN

CG: THE ENTIRE POINT IS

CG: PLEASE

CG: BE ALIVE.

 

\---

 

Kanaya took her time coming back into the room after the dream bubble had passed, and she’d told Rose - in no uncertain terms - that she could do her research in a different room for a little bit. “Karkat?”

 

Karkat didn’t respond. He was lying face first on the floor, which was about par for the course for him and his overdramatics, but she sat down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder anyway. “How was it?”

 

“Awful,” he grumbled into the floor.

 

She laughed slightly, curling her fingers into his hair. “You got to see her again. Before this all started I would never have thought you’d get a chance like that.”

 

“She never should have died in the first place.”

 

“No,” Kanaya agreed. “But just because something shouldn’t have happened…” She faltered. She wasn’t all that good at truisms. 

 

It seemed to have worked though, because suddenly Karkat’s shoulders were trembling - Kanaya eased him up off the floor and pulled him into her chest, and tried to stop herself from crying along with him. “I should have done better,” he cried. “I should have stopped it, I  _ could  _ have stopped it - I kept messaging her and I kept trying to tell her to keep away from Gamzee, and I - I should have done more - I could have saved  _ everyone - _ ”

 

Kanaya kissed his forehead. “You tried -”

 

“I thought saying goodbye would help. It just made it hurt more,” he complained.

 

“Maybe right now. But I think it’s a better memory.”

 

He sniffled, but didn’t respond immediately. She smiled. Maybe he’d heard her this time. “...She told me to get over it and make out with both Dave and Terezi.”

 

“See?” Kanaya tried not to laugh. “A much better memory.”

 

The last remnants of the dream hovered over them, and Kanaya caught a glimpse of somebody in a red outfit from the corner of her eye - holding hands with a familiar face. She supposed somewhere, everybody got their happy ending.


End file.
